


No 9. FOR THE GREATER GOOD (Take Me Instead)

by Goose_Goddess



Series: Goose's Whumptober 2020 [7]
Category: Deadpool - All Media Types, Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-09
Updated: 2020-10-09
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:00:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26921026
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Goose_Goddess/pseuds/Goose_Goddess
Summary: Peter Parker isn't a hero. Except he still isn't willing to watch anyone get hurt if he can do something to stop it.
Series: Goose's Whumptober 2020 [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1949830
Kudos: 1





	No 9. FOR THE GREATER GOOD (Take Me Instead)

Peter Parker is no hero. He’d be the first one to admit it; he hated being the center of attention; he hated having to make hard decision, and he really hated getting hurt. 

Then he got bit by a spider and became Spider-man. But Peter Parker was still not a hero. It was the mask that made the difference. Without it, he was still just an awkward college student who had a hard time in social situations. 

And then this happened. 

Peter was an intern at Stark Industries Lab. It was a great job. It not only paid well, but he was actually learning an enormous amount, making valuable contacts in the industry, and he was working with brilliant people.

Unfortunately, Stark had a lot of enemies. He had amazing security to protect his staff and did everything he could to protect them. However, many people were willing to attack him, despite the risk.

Which is how Peter found himself in a room with several other interns and support staff, surrounded by angry people with guns. The group had charged into the dining room, forced them out at gunpoint, then bundled them into vans and brought them to this abandoned warehouse.

Peter went along quietly, trying not to draw too much attention to himself. He helped the other hostages where he could and tried to keep everyone calm. But mostly, he just looked for a way to get loose or disappear.

Then, the leader got off the phone, angry, and grabbed the closest hostage, an older woman who had been working the cash register in the dining room. He was yelling in her face, shaking her. The woman was clearly terrified, and Peter started worrying they were going to hurt someone. There were too many guns around for him to get away, and too many people who would see if he did anything unusual. But he stood a better chance of surviving it if these idiots decided someone needed to be hit. 

“Hey!” He called over at the man shaking the older woman. “She’s just the cashier. She can’t help you.”

“Oh, and I suppose you can?” The man sneered, turning towards Peter. “Who exactly are you?”

“I’m one of the interns.” Peter said walking slowly closer. 

The man turned and looked at the woman. “Do you know him?” He demanded. 

The woman shook her head, and the man shoved her away. He grabbed one of the interns was within arm’s reach and jerked the guy close to him. “How about you? You know him?” 

The guy nodded his head. “He works with B-banner and Stark.” He stammered, shrinking away from the guy.

The man smiled and turned back to Peter, thrusting the guy away. “Now that is some good news. You can tell us what we need to know.” He strode over to Peter. “You’re going to give us the passwords and access we need.”

“I can’t do that.” Peter said quietly. 

“I think you’ll find you can.” The man grinned, waving at a few of the gunmen. “See, Charlie over there has a computer and you’re going to give him the information he needs, or Mo and Ty here are going to make you regret it.” He turned to the men who handed their guns off to other people, then walked over to Peter. “Don’t mess up his hands or his mouth in case we need him to type or talk. Everything else is fair game.”

Peter knew there was no way Stark wasn’t already on his way after them. All he really had to do was keep their attention on him and away from everyone else until they were found. And try to keep them away from Stark’s database as long as possible. But it sure didn’t look like it was going to be fun.

The first punch wasn’t too bad; he had a lot of experience with getting hit. The problem was, he usually could punch back, dodge, and block. Now he had to just stand there and take it. And normally, he only got hit hard once or twice. He wasn’t used to being hit over and over. Even in high school when he was getting bullied, they rarely hit him more than once or twice, just to prove there point.

This was just pain on pain. But every time he thought about giving up, he’d see someone else in the room. Who would he rather they hit? Barb, who enjoyed working with the rats more than the other interns, and who looked like she weighed 90 lbs soaking wet? Mark, who sometimes brought the service puppy he was socializing in to work? Even Evan, who nobody liked, didn’t deserve to be turned black and blue.

Periodically they’d stop and drag him over to the computer and demand he let them in to some area or another. Each time he gave them a little more; he didn’t dare get them to turn their attention on anyone else. He wished they’d let him have access to the computer; but they were too smart to let him touch the keyboard. 

But he wasn’t sure how much longer he could stand. His jaw was swollen, one eye was closed. He could barely breathe because of the blood running out of his nose. He was pretty sure his right arm was broken, and he didn’t want to think about what his ribs and abdomen looked like. They felt… well, they just felt like pain. 

Then the lights went out and Peter closed his eyes (well, eye, since one was already closed). That had to mean Stark was here. The men dropped him and grabbed their guns, all facing the outer walls and herding the hostages together into a group.

Peter sighed. He knew the problem was how they were going to get the hostages out of a room full of this many angry men with guns with no one (else) getting injured. He hoped Stark had a plan. In the meantime, he thought he’d lie down and wait for a bit.

“Peter,” Barb pulled on his arm. “I think you should try to stay up.” 

“I think, just in case, we should all stay low.” Peter said, pulling back. 

Barb looked at him thoughtfully, then looked around at the ring of men with guns. She nodded and started whispering to the other interns. All of them sank to the floor, keeping low and huddling together.

Peter patted her on the shoulder. Or at least, he tried to. His aim was a little off with one eye closed. “Good. Think Stark’s coming to save us.”

“Are you okay?” Barb asked, looking at him worriedly. “They hit you a lot.”

He smiled, though he was sure it looked more like a grimace. “Eh, not that bad.” He lied. He wondered how he was going to keep them from seeing how fast he healed. He wondered if it would be possible to use makeup to _add_ bruises. He knew how to cover them up—he had a lot of experience with that. Thank goodness for YouTube makeup videos. Maybe there was something similar for adding bruises?

Peter heard something in the vents. Well, here it comes. He held his finger up to his lips and waved Barb down. “Something’s coming.” He whispered. Barb passed the wave on, and soon everyone was as low as they could get.

As Spider-man, Peter had seen Hawkeye in action. He knew that the goons who went down with arrows in them were victims of Hawkeye. He figured they drugged the arrows, because the men went down and stayed down without making a sound.

He wasn’t sure who was taking out the rest of the goons. They just seemed to drop. And so quickly. He couldn’t believe someone could take out that many bad guys that fast.

In seconds, the entire group was on the ground, hopefully unconscious and not dead.

Then vents burst into the room, and Hawkeye and Deadpool dropped into the room. Well, that explained the shooting. Pool was definitely the best there was. Peter was just surprised Stark had hired him for this. He looked over at the goons who had been shot. But there didn’t appear to be any blood. Maybe he’d been using something other than bullets? He’d ask Pool the next time he ran into him on patrol. Right now, he was too tired.

The rest of the interns were climbing to their feet, and they were being directed out of the room by the heroes. Deadpool was calling jokes out to the interns who were leaving while he wandered around the floor, zip tying all the goons. 

“Whoa. What happened here?” Deadpool called, noticing Peter lying on the ground. Barb was standing over him, trying to get him to his feet. 

“They hurt him.” She said tearfully. “He kept their attention on him so nobody else got hurt. But he’s in really bad shape.”

“I see that.” Deadpool said. “How about I help him out, and you lead the way out?”

“What’s up?” Hawkeye asked. “Holy cow. What did they do to him? Use him as a punching bag?”

Barb nodded. “They found out he was Stark’s intern and wanted him to let them into the systems.”

“Can’t do it.” Peter whispered. “I don’t have the rights, but I couldn’t let them hurt someone else.”

“Holy shit nozzles.” Deadpool yelped. “Who do you think you are? Spider-man? All you Boy Scouts with no sense of self preservation.”

“They were hurting Mary.” Peter groaned as Deadpool lifted him to sitting.

“Mary?” Hawkeye asked. 

“The cashier.” Barb said quietly. “She’s a _grandma,_ and he was shaking and slapping her.”

“So you figured better you than anyone else.” Deadpool said. “I’m not sure you can walk, kid. I’m going to carry you, okay.”

“Kay.” Peter said. 

Deadpool scooped him up and nodded for Barb to lead the way. She walked ahead, looking back periodically, anxious.

Peter collapsed against Deadpool and decided that since the rescuers were here, he really didn’t need to stay awake. It’d be okay if he just went to…


End file.
